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The Vitter Truth

Did you know U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) is a Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar?

Neither did I.

Vitter, of course, is now world famous for three things: (1) being Southern Regional chair of Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign; (2) campaign ads that portray him “as a solid family-values sort of fellow” and defender of “traditional marriage against its assorted enemies;” and (3) being a chronic, long-time patron of prostitutes.

Days after Senator David Vitter apologized for using an escort service in Washington, D.C., a woman who once worked as a prostitute in Louisiana said he was a regular client of hers several years ago while he was a state legislator. The woman worked under the name Wendy Cortez.

On Thursday, The Times-Picayune asked Vitter’s office whether he had ever hired a prostitute or knew Wendy Cortez. In response, his office issued a statement that referenced his Monday apology regarding the Washington escort service and reiterated that he was not implicated in a federal investigation that led to the closing of a Canal Street brothel in 2001.

Well, at least he wasn’t implicated in the federal investigation that closed the beloved Canal Street brothel. A moment of silence for the deceased, if you would gentlemen.

And this guy can multi-task with the best of ‘em.

A woman accused of running a Washington prostitution ring placed five phone calls to David Vitter while he was a House member, including two while roll call votes were under way, according to telephone and congressional records.

And you thought it was impressive when the young turks sit in class and text message at the same time. This guy can handle a roll call vote and line up tail for later in the evening. Top that.

I’m trying to wrap it soon. I’ve had about all the Vitter I can handle at the moment.

And yet, David Vitter gets caught with his pants unzipped and a media frenzy erupts. We’re all grownups here. We know that sex sells newspapers and rivets eyeballs to the cable news channels. But in this case, as in any case involving a Republican, the even more delicious scent of hypocrisy is in the water where the sharks are feeding. Vitter’s strained non-apology apology with its references to God and his loving wife mask the fact that the Senator was a prominent exponent of “family values” and saving the “sanctity of marriage”, ostensibly from the ravaging and destructive practice of allowing gays the opportunity to wed.

I will say to my Republican friends that it does no good to whine about double standards. You’re going to have to concede the hypocrisy point to our Democratic friends on this one. If you’re going to lecture people about the sanctity of marriage as it relates to banning gay unions or campaign on a platform stressing “family values,” it would be best if you didn’t go whoring around on your wife, wetting your wick at $300 a pop.

Rick Moran had me going with the above quote, but when he trots this tired line out, he looses me.

If (Larry) Flynt is going to be arbiter of public sanctimony, perhaps he should look inward for starters. This is a man whose magazines and videos, promoting gratuitous and consequence-free sex now sits in judgment of people who have simply followed his formulaic lifestyle and engaged in a little slap and tickle with a willing partner. Despite his magazine’s clear message that there’s absolutely no downside to having easy morals, that in fact, it is a preferred way to live one’s life, Flynt is about to lower the boom on people for living up to his own misogynistic credo.

David Vitter’s career started out when he won a 1999 special election to replace Congressman Bob Livingston, who had resigned post adultery scandal. He didn’t hold back then.

“I think Livingston’s stepping down makes a very powerful argument that Clinton should resign as well and move beyond this mess,” he said. [Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 12/20/98]

About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure.
Flagstaff, Arizona, USA